The Evolution of Business Celebrity in American Law and Society

• Published date: 01 June 2011
• Date: 01 June 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1714.2011.01114.x
• Author: Patricia Sánchez Abril

The Evolution of Business Celebrity

in American Law and Society

Patricia Sa

´

nchez Abril

n

‘‘Fame is metamorphic . .. There can be no single perspective, no secret key by

which we can unlock what it really is.’’

1

INTRODUCTION

Max Mosley was the president of the Fe

´de

´ration Internationale de l’Auto-

mobile, the international governing body for motor sports, including For-

mula One auto racing.

2

Mr. Mosley is well known to followers of the sport,

but is hardly a household name. In 2007, a British tabloid published a sa-

lacious article entitled F1 Boss Has Sick Nazi Orgy with 5 Hookers.

3

The article

included various images depicting the executive engaged in allegedly Nazi-

themed sado-masochistic and sexual activities with several consenting

women.

4

Mr. Mosley sued the tabloid for breach of privacy and libel under

English law, claiming that the tabloid’s allegations regarding the dalliance’s

Nazi overtones were untrue and injurious. During the trial, the tabloid ar-

gued that the public has a right to know of the unconventional sexual con-

duct and adultery of prominent businessmen like Mr. Mosley.

5

While the

r2011 The Author

American Business Law Journal r2011 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

177

American Business Law Journal

Volume 48, Issue 2, 177–225, Summer 2011

n

Assistant Professor,University of Miami School of Business Administration; B.A., Duke Uni-

versity, 1996; J.D., Harvard Law School, 2000.

1

LEO BRAUDY,THE FRENZY OF RENOWN;FAME AND ITS HISTORY 591 (1986).

2

John F. Burns, A British Trial About Privacy in Which Not a Shred Remains, N.Y. TIMES, July 9,

2008, at A1; Ashling O’Connor & Ed Gorman, Max Mosley Faces Calls to Quit as Formula One

Chief After ‘‘Nazi’’ Orgy,T

IMES ONLINE, Mar. 31, 2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/

formula_1/article3649197.ece.

3

Mosley v. News Group Newspapers Ltd., [2008] EWHC (QB) 1777, [1] (Eng.).

4

Id.

5

Id. at [25].

English court agreed that disclosure of an executive’s anti-Semitism would

be in the public interest,

6

it refused to broadly define ‘‘public interest’’ so as

to encompass an executive’s legal sexual behavior.

7

Throughout the int er-

national controversy, many called for Mosley’s resignation, declaring he

‘‘should go out of responsibility for the institution he represents.’’

8

The Mosley scandal exemplifies the convergence of modern celebrity

culture and the business world. Over the past half-century, digital com-

munications, globalization, mass-market media and advertising, and a

heightened public interest in business matters have conspired to shine a

brighter spotlight on business leaders as stars. Once limited to empire-

building robber barons, business fame has also trickled down to profes-

sional managers, entrepreneurs, and even some rank-and-file executives.

Many chief executive officers (CEOs) have become celebrities: some in-

tentionally, others accidentally. Attaining such renown carries economic

value. By becoming synonymous with their firms, top executives gain job

security and financial benefits. They often publish books and endorse

products. Other businesspeople do not actively market themselves but

nevertheless become the objects of public fascination as a result of their

personas, their association with their companies, their talent, and their

wealth.

The emergence of business celebrity culture has made the bound-

aries between public and private figures more elusive than ever. A rich

body of academic literature has emerged regarding the causes and effects

of business fame, particularly in the culture studies and business literature.

Culture studies scholarship argues that celebrities embody the tensions

and dynamics of contemporary society.

9

These scholars trace the history of

celebrity culture and interpret celebrity as the intentional creation of tech-

nological, commercial, and political forces. Research in management and

organizational studies on the impact of celebrity executives has also pro-

6

Id. at [122].

7

Id. England’s High Court ruled in Mosley’s favor on the breach of privacy claim, awarding

him d60,000 in compensatory damages and d1M in costs. Related libel suits are still pending

as of this publication in both the United Kingdom and France. Oliver Luft, Max Mosley

Launches Libel Action Against News of the World,T

HE GUARDIAN, Apr. 3, 2009,http://www.guard

ian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/03/max-mosley-news-of-the-world.

8

Mosley’s Fight to Clear His Famous Name, BBC NEWS, July 9, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/

uk_news/7497790.stm (quoting Bernie Ecclestone).

9

See generally GRAEME TURNER,UNDERSTANDING CELEBRITY (2004).

178 Vol. 48 / American Business Law Journal

liferated of late.

10

These business scholars study business celebrity as it af-

fects corporate culture, leadership, and organizational performance.

11

These scholars debate the consequences of a firm employing highly rec-

ognizable corporate leaders, and they study the media’s role in celebrity

creation.

12

The business literature acknowledges that business celebrity

culture is fueled by the business press’s fundamental attribution error, that

is, the tendency of business journalists to oversimplify complex business

circumstances and attribute outcomes to corporate figureheads.

13

Despite

the recent surge in business celebrity research, no one to date has explored

its evolution and construction in American law, particularly as it plays out

in the law of defamation.

14

Exploring fame across disciplines reveals shared quandaries regard-

ing the definition of public–private boundaries, the rights of the famous,

and their social and financial value in modern society. According to culture

studies scholars, the early 1960s witnessed the beginning of celebrity

10

Mathew L.A. Hayward et al., Believing One’s Own Press: The Causes and Consequences of CEO

Celebrity,25S

TRATEGIC MGMT.J.637 (2004); Kevin Koh, Value or Glamour? An Empirical Inves-

tigation of the Effect of Celebrity CEOs on Financial Reporting Practices and Firm Performance,50

ACCT.&FIN. (forthcoming 2011); Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, Superstar CEOs, 124 Q. J.

ECON. 1593 (2009); Violina P. Rindova et al., Celebrity Firms: The Social Construction of Market

Popularity,31A

CAD.MGMT.REV. 1, 50–71 (2006); James B. Wade et al., The Burden of Celebrity:

The Impact of CEO Certification Contests on CEO Pay and Performance,49A

CAD.MGMT. J. 643–60

(2006).

11

CHARLES J. FOMBRUN,REPUTATION:REALIZING VALUE FROM THE CORPORATE IMAGE (1996).

12

Chao C. Chen & James R. Meindl, The Construction of Leadership Images in the Popular Press:

The Case of Donald Burr and People Express,36A

DMIN.SCI.Q.525 (1991); Hayward et al., supra

note 10; James R. Meindl et al., The Romance of Leadership,30A

DMIN.SCI. Q. 78 (1985).

13

Hayward et al., supra note 10, at 638.

14

Corporate defamation has received considerable attention in legal scholarship. In contrast,

this article addresses defamation case law in relation to individual businesspeople as plaintiffs.

See Patricia Nassif Fetzer, The Corporate Defamation Plaintiff as First Amendment ‘‘Public Figure’’:

Nailing the Jellyfish,68I

OWA L. REV.35 (1982); John Hilbert, Comment, A Criticism of the Gertz

Public Figure/PrivateFigure Testin the Context of the Corporate Defamation Plaintiff,18SAN DIEGO L.

REV. 721 (1981); Arlen W. Langvardt, A Principled Approach to Compensatory Damages in Corporate

Defamation Cases,27A

M.BUS. L.J. 491 (1990); Fred T. Magaziner, Note, Corporate Defamation and

Product Disparagement: Narrowing the Analogy to Personal Defamation,75C

OLUM.L.REV. 963

(1975); Nessa E. Moll, Note, In Search of the Corporate Private Figure: Defamation of the Corpo-

ration,6H

OFSTRA L. REV. 339 (1978); Barbara A. Petrus, Note, Defamation and the First Amend-

ment in the Corporate Context,46ALB.L.REV. 603 (1982); George E. Stevens, Private Enterprise and

Public Reputation: Defamation and the Corporate Plaintiff,12AM.BUS. L.J. 281 (1975); Note, Libel

and the Corporate Plaintiff,69COLUM.L.REV. 1496 (1969).

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